Electronic product manufacturers are unhappy with the government's deadline of July 3 to get IS (Indian Standard) certification from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for all electronic products, saying that the set time point is impractical. They add that if the government sticks to it, there will be massive shortages of products in the coming months.

The new law applies to products including laptops, tablets, plasma/LCD/LED televisions, optical disc players, set top boxes, microwave ovens, video games, scanners and printers among others. The idea is to certify them for their quality, safety and health implications under Indian conditions.

Speaking to The DQ Week, S Rajendran, chief marketing officer, Acer India said, "The move to provide quality products to the end customers is a good intent, but the policy is botched up , in terms of implementations one its a duplications of efforts all these products are anyways certified for global markets like US and UK, these products are more in demands in India. Thus I don't understand, why do we want to duplicate the efforts and incur extra cost?. Moreover, this certification process will hit the supply of the fast moving products as time to the market will be suffered any product prior to launch needs to have an India BIS certified identity to be given before selling any product from July 3, 2013."

He also pointed out that, "Even the BIS lab infrastructure for these products are not fully geared up for testing these products. Already the lab has close to 15,00- 18,00 products for testing and not a single certificate has come out. Once the lab testified these products, then it has to pass on to the BIS and they will put in their due diligence, then it will award the series nos to these products. Post that, as I vendor have to look at back to my supply chain, to get it fixed before the product shipping off. The whole process will take lead time to 14-15 weeks, even if I get the result today, products which are available on sale, will not get BIS certifications."

In order to lobby with the government, MAIT has made several representations, offering to talk about the growing the IT market, as IT in India is highly under-penetrated and not tie our self down with new legislation and duplications. "We are hoping more awareness to come in and government should look at the more seriously and come out with a practical solutions," said Rajendran.

The initial government deadline for certification was April 3. But this was extended by three months. However, even now, the BIS does not appear to be in a position to meet the demands on it.